Our president is no longer black, but Mr. Clean is

9:30 AMAs far as iconic American brands go, few are more recognizable than Mr. Clean. For nearly 60 years, the image of a bald white guy rocking an earring and all-white garb represented the P&G cleaning product brand. Now, that person is a black man. His name is Mike Jackson, and fittingly, he’s from Atlanta. He beat a whole lot of other people to become the brand representative for the next year, according to Yahoo Beauty.

His story is great and seeing a black face in such a traditionally white space is refreshing, even if it’s a temporary promotional tour. It’s not like the brand is changing its Twitter avi or anything. But perhaps most revealing about this whole situation is the number of people who were already looking and apparently acting like the Old Mr. Clean.

The effort surrounds the new Super Bowl commercial to unveil Jackson as the new face. To be clear, Jackson isn’t actually in the commercial. Instead, they just use a CGI white guy who happens to have great rhythm and smooth dance moves to seduce a wife while scrubbing down the kitchen. Seems like you could have found a real person to do that for less, but what do I know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptnur4Xmvyo

Anyway, take some time and look up “The Next Mr. Clean” on YouTube. The results are flat-out hilarious. There are guys using funny voices and making dramatic readings. Others are taking the whole “white eyebrows” thing to its most literal extension, which strikes us as a terrible move, socially. Some are singing the theme song, which I didn’t even realize had actual lyrics to it.

Either way, good for Jackson and thanks for the reminder that I need to clean my bathroom.